Science: Year of Fire

Mauna Loa was ticking like a time bomb. Dr. Thomas A. Jaggar, a rugged
old master of volcanology at the University of Hawaii, would not
venture a guess on the day or month Mauna Loa would erupt, but
according to his charts and records, 1946 is a climactic year in the
volcano's eleven-year cycle. That cycle has been rolling along as
steady as moonrise since 1832and probably well before that. When the
eruption comes, says Dr. Jaggar, there is a good chance that a stream
of smoking lava will writhe slowly down the north...